Big Damn Heroes
by The Black Sun's Daughter
Summary: Connor loved Halloween. Thing is, his teammates, well, didn't. But, lucky for him, he's still got someone to celebrate with, and in the best ways possible.


**A/N: I posted this for two reasons. One, it seems to me there is a lack of Connor/Jenny friendship stories, and two, today is Andrew-Lee Potts's (a.k.a. the adorkable Connor Temple) birthday. Happy early Halloween to everyone and happy birthday to Andrew-Lee!**

* * *

Connor loved Halloween. Even when he was a kid and his git brothers liked to scare him silly, it never once stopped him from going out trick-or-treating. It was certainly nice, too, that his birthday was on the 29th of October, two days before Halloween. How cool was that? On his birthday he gets presents and cake and games, and then two days later, he gets to spend an entire night in a costume getting free candy? Greatest birthday _ever!_ He had always been a small kid, too, so he had been able to get away with going trick-or-treating when he was 16 years old and way too old for it because he looked 12. And even once he was older, he didn't go trick-or-treating, but he still wore the costumes. It was the one day of the year a grown man could dress up like his greatest childhood heroes and _not_ have the piss taken for it. How could he let such an opportunity pass? It was his tradition, in a way.

At Uni, they allowed students and faculty to dress up, on the condition that it was nothing too explicit or too revealing. Because more than one girl had taken the chance to dress up as a slut and not be judged. Tom and Duncan would dress up with him, too, and they'd all go to a party with their fellow nerds later on, culminating in the comic shop's annual costume contest. The year that Connor's brother and sister came to visit, the went as Justice League and won first place; probably because they had an actual, breathing girl dressed up as Wonder Woman instead of an effeminate man.

But the big problem he had right now was that Connor loved Halloween and his teammates...didn't. At all.

When he asked Abby what she wanted to be for Halloween, she'd given him one of her patented _looks_ and said, "I'm a grown woman, why would I dress up?"

Cutter had made a face like he'd rather have someone make him sit through a department meeting on budgetary spending.

Stephen had actually laughed at him.

He didn't even bother asking Becker.

He had even inquired to Lester whether or not there'd be some kind of Halloween parties. Near every other place he'd worked at had some kind of costumed get-together on Halloween, and just because they chased dinosaurs and holes in time for a living shouldn't mean they didn't do _some_ things normal, right? Lester had given him a look that said _get out of my office right now and if you ever ask me something so monumentally stupid again, I'll push you through an anomaly myself._ Connor had become very good at reading those looks.

The last thing he expected was for Jenny to come up and unceremoniously drop a large, oddly soft package wrapped in brown paper on his lap as he sat debugging the ADD for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Whatever techs were using this whilst he was out obviously had no idea what they were doing. "Wha?" he spluttered in confusion.

Jenny folded both arms over her stomach. "Happy birthday," she said, and his eyes widened slightly. Not a single person today had remembered it was his birthday, not even Abby...but _Jenny_ had? "Now, I'm going to my sister's costume party tonight, and I can't show up without a date. I can't bring Cutter, and nobody else will dress up. I didn't ask you before because it's probably the dullest party in existence, and I know you'll be bored stiff. So, will you come with me?"

She had said all of it in one go, and Connor had to take a moment to filter through it all. "You...want _me_ to come with _you_ to a costume party?" he asked slowly.

"Yep. Like I said, it'll be dull as all hell, but all we have to do is stay for twenty minutes and then we can scarper, head to a proper party, and get completely smashed?"

"I, erm...yeah, sure, sounds great," he replied at last, still a little dazed. Then, with a throb of sudden trepidation, he hastily pulled open the package. Oh, God, what was she going to make him dress as? At first, he couldn't quite make sense of the costume, but once the pieces fell together, he felt a giddy rush of joy bloom in his chest. He looked up at Jenny in awed disbelief.

The corner of her mouth curled up. "I have watched it and love it, and if you tell anyone, I'll push you through an anomaly myself. By the way, there's something else for you in the coat pocket."

Connor hastily nodded, not sure he could speak. As she strode away, heels clicking, he dug into the pocket of the coat to find a box, this one wrapped in jaunty orange paper with black cats, witches, bats, and jack-o-lanterns on it. Curious, he tore it open and wriggled off the lid. His jaw dropped open, and he had to bit his lip to keep from whooping in sheer joy. And he might've teared up a little bit, too, but if anyone asked, he said it was allergies.

* * *

"Christ!" Stephen hastily yanked his leg up as one of the Herrerasaurus made an impressive leap upwards, jaws snapping at his feet.

"Any luck yet?" Cutter asked, voice taut as he watched the irritated raptors prowling around the base of the tree, eyeing up their prey with determination.

"No. Reception's for shite out here," Abby replied. They had gotten to an anomaly before the soldiers had arrived, out in New Forest, only to be faced with four very hungry Herrerasaurus that were quite determined to make a dinner out of the two-legged mammals. Stephen had managed to tranquilise one of them before they were chased up the tree, but that still left three on their feet, and his gun was on the ground below where he'd dropped it in the desperate vertical scramble for safety. "Where's Connor and Jenny?" Abby asked.

Cutter scooted up another branch as the Herrerasaurus made another leap towards their feet. "Jenny said something about a party, but Connor, I dunno. Comic shop, probably," he answered tersely.

"Yeah, well - _fuck!"_ Stephen let out a strangled shout as the biggest raptor made a leap upwards and managed to hook claws on a lower hanging branch, feet scrabbling at the trunk. The creature's enormous sickle claw dug into the bark, helping it propel upwards, jaws snapping at them.

 _Crack!_

The raptor let out a pained screech, thrashing in anger as it dropped from the tree. A bright silver tranquiliser dart protruded from its scaly shoulder. It started to stand, staggered, then fell limp on its side.

 _Crack-crack!_

The other two Herrerasaurus let out echoing shrieks as two more shots found their hides.

"Well, look at this!" Connor called loudly as he and Jenny strode out of the trees, carrying a tranquiliser rifle. He was dressed like someone from the Old West in a long, well-worn brown coat, a wine-coloured button-up shirt, suspenders, high-waisted tan trousers, a gun belt, and a pair of black riding boots. Jenny walked alongside him with the back-up rifle. She was dressed quite the same, wearing a similar brown coat, a red shirt, leather vest, skintight black trousers, gun strapped on her thigh, and the same sort of boots. "Appears we showed up just in the nick of time. What's that make us?" Connor asked.

"Big damn heroes, sir," Jenny replied as they stepped over the unconscious raptors to look up at Stephen, Cutter, and Abby.

"Ain't we just?" Connor smirked, resting the rifle over one shoulder.

Jenny planted one hand on her hip. "So, are you lot gonna come down, or do I need to call fire brigade?"

* * *

When they returned to the ARC, Cutter was first to notice that two new items had taken up residence on Connor's desk: a small model of some spaceship and a framed photo of nine people in the same sort of Western outfits with the same spaceship in the background, with nine different signatures scrawled across it.

* * *

Connor put both feet up on the table only to have them swatted back off by Jenny's hand as she dropped down onto the couch beside him. "Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you can't have some measure of decorum," she informed him snootily, then cracked a grin and put her own feet on the table next to his. "By the way, this is probably the best cake I have ever had."

"Thanks. Mum's recipe. Never knew a German chocolate cake that could beat hers," he replied, said cake currently balanced on a tray between them, half-eaten with two forks stuck in it. "By the way, you were right. That party _sucked._ "

Jenny laughed aloud, taking another forkful of cake. "I know. But when you started correcting Ridley on his mathematics...I'm never going to be invited back," she giggled. That was clearly not a big problem for her.

"Well, of course I corrected him. The git was completely off! He had the whole thing skewed!" Connor replied.

She shook her head and prodded him in the ribs. "I know he was. Now start the show, would you?"

Grinning still, he fished out the remote, but before he pressed play, he looked back at Jenny and asked, "Think we should call Cutter and the others? Rescue them from the truckload of paperwork Lester dumped on 'em when we left?"

She pretended to think about it a moment. "Nah. We'll bring them some cake tomorrow," she replied dismissively.

"If there's any left," he amended.

"Hm. Well, in that case, we'll bring them some candy. Now, press play," she insisted again.

Connor sat back against the plush, comfy sofa and pressed the button, grinning as the familiar theme song started playing and the _Serenity_ appeared in a star-flecked sky.

Best birthday _ever._


End file.
